Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

There's Saïd Benrahma getting a copy of Crash 4 for winning Man of the Match against Fulham the other night.



It came out yesterday, and I picked it up. I'm only about 20% in, but my impressions so far are massively positive. I'm having brilliant fun with Crash 4. The things that stopped me from wiring into the N.Sane Trilogy were it's imprecise, unconvincing jumping and it's brutal difficulty. Happily, Toys for Bob have paid attention to those drawbacks with Crash 4. 

In what a think's a series first, there's now a discreet marker on the ground which shows you where you're going to land after a jump. That's massively helpful in a game like Crash, where depth perception is something you'd otherwise toil with several times in each level. 

The other big change is the addition of a 'Modern' mode, which removes Game Overs and where death simply sends you back to the last checkpoint. It's not an Easy mode - it's actually the same basic game in it's other Retro mode, so the challenge is still there to a degree - but it's so, so much more convenient and far less punishing. It's the difference between me getting scunnered and switching the game off when I get to an annoying section I have to retry fifteen times; in Modern mode, it's all so quick and instant, and there's no fannying about with having to go back to a Hub and enter/replay a whole level.  

Disappointingly, there's nowhere that's selling this for much under £50 just now. But when the price inevitably drops - or even when it inevitably appears on Switch - I really encourage you to get it bought, Crash 4 is the dog's bollocks. 

Good we write up, and from what I've seen does look better than I thought.

For around even £40, will be giving a miss just due to backlog and what's happening in November. That maybe Crash 4 will be a January Sale pick up.

I was put right off by N-Sane trilogy but good to hear this has learnt some lessons from it, I've heard a lot of good things so far but our very own Cappa is much more reliable.

I've finished the main story, but that only accounts for just under half of all the levels, so I'll keep going before I type up a review. What's clear to me though is that lessons have been learnt with Crash 4, while staying faithful and respectful to what people loved on the PSone in the late '90s.

If you've been put off by the N.Sane Trilogy's difficulty, this is where to come back to. If you've never played Crash Bandicoot before, this is where to jump in.

WAOW!!





Out on PS5, XBox Series X and Switch on March 12th. You've got no excuse.

About time...

My excuse is that it's a Crash Bandicoot game.

@masofdas wrote:

Good we write up,

But bad we write down.

As it's a free upgrade, if I see a cheap Xbox One version then I may pick it up.

Still waiting for it to be a reasonable price over here.

I recall seeing it for £24 in Tesco once and when I returned the next day to get it it was double that, never been back since.

Shunted into the Switch forum. Crash is one of the few platforming mascots that makes me think new Sonic's vibe is all right, so I'll probably not be picking this one up.

^ lol

I've been wanting to pick this game up for a while. Just waiting for the price to go down, as these days I'll rarely buy a game for its full retail price unless it's the Switch version maybe, because then I know it'll hold its value. Saw a PS4 copy that was briefly £35 at an Asda and kinda wish I had picked it up at that price. Now I'll probably wait for the Switch version, or the PC version for more stable performance.

N Sane Trilogy was solid and I've heard (and seen) good things about this one so I'm expecting more of the same if not better. I don't really get why people who seem to be fans of other not too dissimilar platformers seem to turn their nose up at these games.

@Kriken wrote:

I don't really get why people who seem to be fans of other not too dissimilar platformers seem to turn their nose up at these games.

I can't explain it either. Even the lesser ones like Wrath of Cortex are solidly entertaining. I think one area I know more about that a lot of people is platformers, and I think that the best Crash Bandicoot games - namely Warped and It's About Time - are definitely right up there with the best.

Crash Bandicoot himself, he's very expressive and animated without ever saying a word. The idle animations, the death animations, even the way it fannies about during cutscenes - I don't get how anyone can't endear themselves to the goofy, silly and funny Crash Bandicoot character.

@Kriken wrote:

I don't really get why people who seem to be fans of other not too dissimilar platformers seem to turn their nose up at these games.

Because it plays quite differently to other 3D platformers? Mario 64 style turned into Mario Odyssey, while Crash style turned into mobile autorunners.

@Treesmurf wrote:

I recall seeing it for £24 in Tesco once and when I returned the next day to get it it was double that, never been back since.

That's about the price (same for Avengers as it gets an upgrade soon for PS5/XSX) I want to pay as I liked Crash back in the day but wasn't keen on the N Sane Trilogy and do think I only liked because that's what I had on PS1, but I'm willing to give 4 a crash bash.

I've heard this one feels a lot more modern and has more to it in terms of story than the previous ones so could well be worth full price anyway, I didn't really get on with N Sane Trilogy myself but I too am willing to give it a Crash: Mind over Mutant.

To be honest for a minute, I mostly do it to wind people up. I haven't touched a Crash since 2 and 3 on the PS1, which I liked well enough. Obviously they're nowhere near Mario's league, but literally nothing is, so I can't hold that against them.

I watched a review of this fairly recently and I must admit that it really does look the business. I think a big issue I had with the N.Sane Trilogy was that it was faithful to a fault, especially in regards to its difficulty and the life system, so a more modern take on Crash will no doubt go down a treat.